Patrick plans trade trip to Brazil

Wednesday

BOSTON — After making only one official trip abroad during his first term in office, Gov. Deval Patrick is planning his second international trade mission this year. Next stop? Brazil.

The Patrick administration is in the final stages of planning a trip that could take Patrick and a delegation to Brazil as soon as early December, administration officials disclosed Tuesday.

The trip would be Patrick's third international trade mission since taking office in 2007, and the second this year after traveling to Great Britain and Israel in March on a 10-day excursion. Patrick traveled to China in 2007.

"Yes, we are exploring a potential trade mission to Brazil later this year. We hope to have a final determination soon," Patrick's press secretary, Kim Haberlin, said in a statement.

Along with China, Israel, Russia and India, Brazil is home to one of the world's fastest growing economies and represents the largest national economy in Latin America, with major oil reserves and a robust clean energy sector.

According to the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment, Brazil has the seventh largest economy in the world, and is expected to rank fifth in the "near future." Trade between Massachusetts and Brazil topped $475 million in 2010, including $396 million in exports to Brazil and more than $80 million in imports to Massachusetts. Exports from the state to Brazil are up 31 percent in 2011, according to MOITI officials.

Portuguese is also the second most commonly spoken language in Massachusetts after English, with pockets of Brazilian immigrants in cities such as Framingham, and a large population of Portuguese-Americans spread across SouthCoast cities to communities such as Somerville, Lowell, Framingham, Hudson and Milford.

Massachusetts is not alone among states targeting Brazil for economic growth potential. Florida Gov. Rick Scott is in Brazil on a trade mission. He attended a travel agent trade show in Rio de Janeiro last week before traveling to Sao Paolo to meet with Brazilian company officials.

According to the Patrick administration, governors and senior officials from more than 15 states have visited the country during the past three years, including Scott, Idaho Lt. Gov. Brad Little and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

"Governor-led trade missions have become a must in today's global economy," Haberlin said.

Ken Brown, the administration's new director of MOITI, is currently in Brazil where he will spend the next four days laying the groundwork with government and business officials to make a final determination on the trip, according to an administration official.

The News Service began asking about the trip after state Sen. Marc Pacheco, who hosted the ambassador of Portugal to the United States, Nuno Brito, at the Statehouse on Monday, said he believed the governor was eyeing his next trade mission before the end of the year.

"Especially when you look at the connections that the United States could have, and in particular Massachusetts could have with Portugal, and trade partnerships specifically with the Portuguese-speaking countries of the world, whether you look at Brazil where the governor may be going in the first week of December, I believe, there are opportunities for partnership," Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat, said during a meeting alongside other Portuguese state lawmakers and Brito.

Asked to elaborate on Patrick's travel plans, Pacheco said Monday, "That's what I hear. That he may be."

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